Elon Musk Sells $4 Billion Tesla Shares After Agreeing to Purchase Twitter, Says ‘No More Sales Planned’

Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla shares this week, just days after the billionaire agreed to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the filings, the CEO offloaded about 4.4 million shares of the electric vehicle company for about $3.9 billion, with the majority of the share sales taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sales prices ranged between about $872 and $999 per share. The filings don’t reveal the reason behind why Musk sold his shares.

In a post on Twitter shortly after the filings were published on Thursday, Musk said: “No further TSLA sales planned after today.”

Musks offloading of Tesla shares came after Twitter’s board of directors on Monday reached an agreement on the businessman’s $44 billion offer to acquire the social media platform and take it private.

The company accepted Musk’s proposal of $54.20 per share in cash after previously resisting the offer.

Musk, in a statement following the agreement, reiterated his previous comments regarding the need for Twitter to allow for freedom of speech while touting his vision for the future of the social media platform.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” he said.

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans.

“Twitter has tremendous potential—I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” Musk added.

However, the deal still needs to be approved by Twitter’s shareholders and regulators.

It will also require that Musk come up with some cash.

https://www.ntd.com/elon-musk-sells-4-billion-tesla-shares-after-agreeing-to-purchase-twitter-says-no-more-sales-planned_772926.html

Ghana Human Trafficking: 842 victims rescued in 2021 – Deputy Gender Minister

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Human-Trafficking-842-victims-rescued-in-2021-Deputy-Gender-Minister-1526129

FBI Conducted Millions of Searches of Americans’ Electronic Data in 2021 without a Warrant

The FBI conducted millions of searches of Americans’ electronic data in 2021 without a warrant, according to a new report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The FBI claims it conducted the searches as they sought to curb cyberattacks.

“In the first half of the year, there were a number of large batch queries related to attempts to compromise U.S. critical infrastructure by foreign cyber actors,” according to the report, Bloomberg reported. “These queries, which included approximately 1.9 million query terms related to potential victims — including U.S. persons — accounted for the vast majority of the increase in U.S. person queries conducted by FBI over the prior year.”

The ACLU called the FBI’s warrantless spying an invasion of privacy ‘on an enormous scale.’

Bloomberg reported:

The FBI searched emails, texts and other electronic communications of as many as 3.4 million U.S. residents without a warrant over a year, the nation’s top spy chief said in a report.

The “queries” were made between December 2020 and November 2021 by Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel as they looked for signs of threats and terrorists within electronic data legally collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to an annual transparency report issued Friday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The authority the FBI used in this case was under Section 702 of FISA, which is set to expire at the end of next year unless it’s renewed by Congress.

The report doesn’t say the activity was illegal or even wrong. But the revelation could renew congressional and public debates over the power U.S. agencies have to collect and review intelligence information, especially data concerning individuals. In comparison, fewer than 1.3 million queries involving Americans’ data were conducted between December 2019 and November 2020, according to the 38-page report.

The report sought to provide a justification for the increase in queries during the last year.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/fbi-conducted-millions-searches-americans-electronic-data-2021-without-warrant/

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https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1602547/macron-news-french-backlash-president-s-digital-id-launch

Russian energy giant to quit foreign exchanges

Gazprom says it will delist its depository receipts to comply with a new law

Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom said on Friday it was delisting its depository receipts from international stock exchanges after the Russian government refused to agree on their further circulation.

According to a statement on the company’s website, holders will have the “right to convert them into ordinary shares.”

Gazprom also said it has notified the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority of its intention to cancel standard listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The company has also asked the LSE and the Singapore Exchange to delist its depositary receipts within 20 business days.

Under a new law, the securities of Russian companies can be traded on foreign trading floors only with special permission by Russian authorities.

Last month, LSE blocked trading in 27 Russian corporations, including EN+, Gazprom, Lukoil, Rosneft, and Sberbank. The blacklist was part of Western efforts to cut Russia off from the international financial markets in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.

https://www.rt.com/business/554745-russian-energy-giant-foreign-exchanges/